Friday, February 10, 2017

Destinations :: Trivandrum & Kanya Kumari (1978)

Having
spent few lovely days in salubrious Ooty we descended down to the Arabian Sea
coast. We were not aware that travelling to Trivandrum via Coimbatore would have
been easier and cheaper. We had bookings in a train from Bangalore. So we had
to come all the way back to Bangalore and lost a day in the process. More than
an overnight’s journey later we were in Trivandrum, later renamed Thiruvananthapuram.

A gold chain that is 18 ft. long (Photo from internet)

The name signifies that the city is the seat
of its deity Sri Padmanabhaswamy for whom there is an ancient temple. Thiruvanantpuram
means City of Lord Ananta. In fact the capital of the erstwhile Travancore
State was Padmanabpuram which is now in the state of Tamil Nadu. The capital
was shifted to Thiruvananthpuram in1795 and Padmanabpuram got integrated into
Tamil Nadu curiously in 1957 – the same digits as those of 1795.

Kerala landscape as seen from a railway train

The
temple seems to be timeless as no information is available about its origin. It
has found mention in puranas; its
origins are lost in mists of time. It has, however, had the reputation down the
ages that it is the richest place of worship anywhere in the world. The temple
is dedicated to Vishnu who is shown in the posture of eternal sleep. The façade
is golden which has come in for criticism from some Westerners who found it
“decadent”. It may be

In one of the Kovalam gazenos

so for modern times but it wasn’t ever considered vile or
contemptible by the locals. And that is what matters. Its riches have always
been a matter of general discourse.

The controversy regarding the temple gold
occurred much later and from all appearances it still remains unresolved. What,
however, is a fact is that the treasure in several vaults of the temple

At Kovalam beach

date
back to thousands of years. No one seems to know the value of the treasure as
most of them have remained unopened. The vaults that were opened under orders
of the Supreme Court yielded enormous amount of gold and jewellery as also
hundreds of thousands of gold coins from Roman Empire and elsewhere – all
estimated to be worth a trillion dollars. The vaults that are supposed to be
holding most of the wealth are yet to be opened and if ever these are opened it

Marvellous sunset at Kanya Kumari

could amount to the biggest recovery of ancient treasures in the world.

Temples
like Shri Padmanabhaswami with its golden facade must have been the reasons for
circulation of rumours about riches of India. This must have been reason for
foreigners to cast evil eyes on the country. No wonder marauders from the West
repeatedly attacked the country and sacked temples like Somnath and others.
Even now several temples are bursting at their seams with gems, jewellery, gold
and currency.

Thiruvanthapuram
is supposed to be the largest city in deep south and is a very well laid out
place. Having been the capital of the erstwhile princely state of Tranvancore
it looks every bit of it. Princely India has left behind its stamp on the towns
which happened to be the bases from

where the princes ruled over their
respective territories. That is true of Thiruvananthpuram as well though the
place is visited more for the Shree Padmanaswami temple and the famed Kovalam
beach than for anything else. Ages ago it used to have trading links with the
Middle East as also the Roman Empire but signs of them are left more in the
vaults of the Shree Padmanaswami temple in the shape of Roman and

Both of us at Kanya Kumari beach

Grecian gold
coins. The spice trade that brought wealth to the local maharaja seems to have
now shifted to Cochin where there is a more organized spices market.

The
other place I remember visiting was the Kovalam beach. What we did was to go to
the Kovalam Beach Resort Hotel and sit out in the open for some time and then
in a gazebo and enjoyed the breeze and the sea spread out in front. Sitting
there we also enjoyed a lot fried prawns which were just delicious.

Cape
Comorin or Kanya Kumari

We
travelled about a hundred kilometers mostly along the coast to come to Kanya Kumari formerly known as
Cape Comorin, the southern tip of the Indian land mass. It was supposed to be a
fabled place where the three seas/oceans met. Named after the Devi Kanya Kumari
(Parvati) temple, it is a small place but the eateries here dish out fantastic
dosas. The nearest town is Nagarcoil which is the district

A wave races down and hits a rock

headquarters – the
district having been named after Kanya Kumari.

One
has to visit the place only for its sunrises and sunsets. They are just out of
this world; the play of early morning light or that of the evening on the waves
is fascinating. Cape Comorin has had ancient connections with the Greeks and
was at one time a centre that traded with them, Ptolemy is said to have
described the place in his treatises identifying it with Gulf of Mannar.

All
this apart, Swami Vivekanada visited Kanya Kumari in 1892 and meditated here on
a rock far out on the sea for as many as three days. He is stated to have swum
to it against the advice of the local fishermen

On the beach

and survived on the rock
without any food and water for three days. The place is now immortalized as
Vivekanand Memorial and has become a tourist spot.

During
our stay we were suddenly overtaken by a storm. From our Kerala House room we
could see fishermen far out looking for a catch bobbing

One more seascape

up and down on the turbulent
sea in strong winds. They, apparently, are a courageous and tough lot as none
seemed to be heading back for the coast. Making a living for them is virtually
an everyday struggle.

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About Me

There would seem to be no point in talking about the position I used to hold. What is more relevant today is that I am retired from the service of government of India where I worked for thirty four years in senior positions ending just below the top of my department. I retired more than twenty years ago. To be fruitfully engaged I took to blogging and writing articles, initially, on local issues but now for years I have been writing on topical and environmental matters. The writings in the local supplement of a national daily gave me some kind of a positive identity in the town which culminated in my being nominated to be a founder member of Bhopal Citizens' Forum, a powerful pressure group. I am , I think, fruitfully engaged and I have no complaints against life.